Richard Branson’s unlimited holiday – publicity stunt?

Believing that all workplaces should “throw away the book” on annual leave policies, Richard Branson has announced, via his blog, that all of his employees at Virgin will now be entitled to unlimited holiday.

Following in the footsteps of Netflix, who started this new holiday ‘craze’ in 2010, Branson’s policy states “it is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off”. Branson believes that his employees will only take holiday when they feel in a comfortable position to be able to leave and that their absence “will not in any way damage the business”.

We, at Springhouse, are interested to see how Richard Branson’s policy will work in practice. We’re not sure that it will, and think he could be setting himself up for problems down the line. Don’t worry Mr Branson, we’ll be here waiting for that call!